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Monthly Archives: May 2017

It happened again last night: I found another politically ignorant person preaching about how much better things would be if only we had a real third party in the United States. (To be clear: I’m not saying all people who feel this way are politically ignorant, just that this guy was.) Let’s see if I can simply explain why this is a non-starter. I do not disagree with the sentiment; rather, I consider myself personally agnostic on the subject. My objections to this line of thinking are based in how impractical it is to change the laws and constitution to bring about such a system. This piece explains what causes the 2-party system we have, what changes would need to take place in order to end it, and an analysis of how likely advocates are to successfully enact those changes.

I have been writing too much elsewhere lately, so the blog has suffered from a lack of attention. Fortunately, though, I think it is improving my writing.

Lately, I have been considering something from Hasan Minhaj’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner monologue.

A key bit for me:

Supporters of President Trump trust him, and I know journalists, you guys, are definitely trying to do good work. I just think a lot of people don’t trust you right now, and can you blame them? …you guys have been far from perfect.

Remember election night? I mean, that was your Steve Harvey Miss Universe moment. The look on your faces at 11 p.m. on election night. It was like walking into a Panera Bread and finding out your sixth-grade teacher has a part-time job there.

This is spot-on. Later he says this: “I don’t have a solution on how to win back trust. I don’t.” Well, I have an idea.